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US says food from cloned animals is safe

31 October 2003

By Shaoni Bhattacharya

Meat and milk derived from animal clones is likely to be safe for human consumption, says a draft report by the US Food and Drug Administration. However, a decision on whether to allow the selling of food products from cloned animals will not be made for at least another year.

“Edible products from normal, healthy clones or their progeny do not appear to pose increased food consumption risks relative to comparable products from conventional animals, concludes the draft executive summary.

The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is carrying out two reviews of cloning in cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. One is concentrating on the risk of consumption to humans, while the second focuses on the health risks of cloning to the animals themselves and their offspring.

In the first review, the FDA panel is trying to identify the “subtle hazards” to human health which might have arisen as a result of the nuclear transfer technology used to create clones. Deformed or diseased clones were excluded from their analysis, as these would not enter the human food chain.

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Rare breed

Food from clones is unlikely for some time. One estimate puts the number of cloned cattle in the US at a couple of hundred, compared to 100 million normal cattle. And these clones are being used for breeding rather than for food.

“We do not want these products on the market until there has been a thoughtful, thorough and deliberate evaluation of the issues,” said Stephen Sundlof, director of CVM, in the FDA Consumer magazine. “We want to make sure that the public is clearly informed and that they have had a chance to participate in the process.”

A US National Academy of Sciences’ report, commissioned by the FDA, reached a similar conclusion in August 2002&colon; However, the NAS report did highlight adverse effects on animal welfare. For example, many cloned animals can have higher birthweights than normal which can cause difficulty at birth.

Also, consumer groups say the FDA has not considered society’s reaction to eating foods derived from cloned animals. “They seem to be shockingly obtuse when it comes to the fact that this … makes people very uncomfortable,” Carol Tucker, of the Consumer Federation of America, told CNN.